Faculty, staff, and students gathered for a Halloween Potluck on October 25, 2012. The potlucks were inspired some years ago by our super Administrative Assistant Colleen Palleschi. This was her final potluck before her retirement in early January 2013. The students honored her with a framed collection of photos of Physics & Astronomy students throughout her years. For photos of the event see the Photo Gallery.
Faculty and Staff made the food for the luncheon. The menu included:
Chicken & Pumpkin Stew
Turkey & Stuffing
Hot Dogs
Sweet & Sour Beans
Dal
Chicken & Broccoli Stir Fry
Perecca’s Goodies
Apple Scones
Morning Glory Muffins
Chad Orzel, Associate Prof. and Chair of Physics and Astronomy, was one of the featured speakers at the opening of the new Mike and Ophelia Lazaridis Quantum Nano Center at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. The Quantum Nano Center will house the Institute for Quantum Computing and the Waterloo Institute for Nanotechnology, and was made possible by a gift from Mike Lazaridis, founder of Research in Motion, the maker of Blackberry. Designed to foster collaboration and innovation, the Quantum Nano Center is a state-of-the-art research facility which will play a central role in the drive to create a “Quantum Valley” in the Waterloo area playing the same role for next generation information technologies that Silicon Valley does for conventional computers.
Prof. Orzel was part of two events at the Open House, giving a public lecture on “What Every Dog Should Know About Quantum Mechanics,” and taking part in a panel discussion on “Bridging Worlds,” about the connections between the strange worlds of the quantum and nano systems studied at the QNC and future everyday technologies. The other panel participants were Mike Lazaridis, Raymond Laflamme (the Executive Director of the Institute for Quantum Computing) and Tom Brzustowski (a former Canadian government minister and expert on innovation). Both the lecture and the panel were recorded for future broadcast on the Web and TV Ontario.
Chad Orzel, Associate Professor and Chair of Physics and Astronomy, had an essay published in the anthology “The Best Science Writing Online 2012,” from Scientific American Books, an imprint of Farrar Strauss Giroux. The essay, “Faster Than a Speeding Photon” provides a detailed explanation of the claimed measurement of neutrinos moving faster than the speed of light, explaining the research article in terms accessible to a non-physicist. (This claim was later shown to be an error, though sadly, after the book had gone to press…)
The Best Science Writing Online 2012, guest edited by prominent science writer Jennifer Ouellette, collects 50 of the best essays on science published in online venues during 2011. Prof. Orzel’s essay was originally published on his physics weblog, Uncertain Principles, which is part of the ScienceBlogs network produced in partnership with the National Geographic Society.
